POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Murano glass goblet

Object No. A24

This Venetian glass goblet of shell-shaped opalescent glass with gilt decoration, was made at Murano, Italy, between 1888 and 1889, in the Renaissance revival style. In 1859 Dr Antonia Salviati set up a Murano company to revive traditional Venetian glass. In 1877 the company split into a London-based firm and his own glassworks. At first, Renaissance designs were copied at Salviati. Soon, the artisans' taste for fantasy brought a new flavour. Dragons, dolphins, seahorses an filigree patterns dazzled with technical bravura. Richness and novelty, both in the 'look' of objects and as sources of inspiration, were highly regarded in western decorative arts for much of the nineteenth century. The antiquity-inspired architecture and arts of the Renaissance offered designers a luxuriant choice of forms, techniques and motifs. As in Renaissance revival architecture, which was favoured for prestigious public buildings, designs for furniture, glass and ceramics followed first Italian, then French and also German models, mostly of the fourteenth and fifteen centuries. A style rarely concerned with archaeological accuracy, the Renaissance revival became immensely popular following the 1862 London International Exhibition.